Encyclical of 1983 Against "Old
Calendarist Ecumenism"

ACT OF THE HOLY AND SACRED COUNCIL
OF THE GENUINE ORTHODOX CHURCH OF GREECE

Protocol Number: 6/13-7-1983

Theme: Condemnation of the so-called "Old Calendarist
Ecumenism."

The Holy Synod of Bishops of the Genuine Orthodox Church of Greece in
its session of July 13, 1983, addressed the theme of the so-called
"Old Calendarist Ecumenism", and took into account:

a) That the so-called "Old Calendarist Ecumenism" teaches an
entirely heretical teaching, to wit, that all the groups and factions
that follow the old calendar together consist and belong to the One,
Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ, and it proposes a union
of these [factions] according to an ecumenistic perception and not
according to the Orthodox Confession and Ecclesiology.

b) That "Old Calendarist Ecumenism" is a fruit and product
of antichristian Ecumenism, the pan-heresy of our age, which seeks,
through the fractions and divisions and the ecclesiological confusion,
to distort the Orthodox Confession  Ecclesiology and to introduce
this heretical teaching into the Uninnovated Church, in order to
thereby suffocate it.

c) That the age, in which we are going through, is an age of general
apostasy and ecclesiological confusion, which was caused by
antichristian Ecumenism. Thus, the criticality of these times requires
[from us] especially, a continuous way of life in the pure Confession
of the Orthodox Faith and in the teachings of the Church of Christ.

d) That "the chosen vessel," the divine Apostle Paul,
commands us all: "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all
the flock, over the which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers, to
feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own
blood," and continues: "grievous wolves shall enter in among
you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise,
speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them."
(Acts 20:28-30)

e) That many have arisen, speaking perversely, for the purpose of
setting aside the Confession and Ecclesiology of the Holy Church of
Christ, and turn against the divine and Sacred Canons and generally
against the Holy and Sacred Tradition, by preaching "Old
Calendarist Ecumenism" with bared head, and disturbing the
assembly of the faithful.

Since "Old Calendarist Ecumenism" is condemned by the
consensus of the divine and Sacred Canons and is something foreign and
polemical against the Orthodox Confession and Ecclesiology of the
Church of Christ, for this reason, together with our Holy and
God-bearing Fathers, holding the divine and Sacred Canons in embrace,
in the Holy Spirit we decide:

1. We judge and condemn the so-called Old Calendarist Ecumenism,
as something foreign to, and incompatible with, the Orthodox
Confession and Ecclesiology of the Holy Church of Christ.

2. With one mouth and one heart we confess and preach that the Genuine
Orthodox Church, which for reasons of discernment is called "uninnovated"
or "Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians," is the
continuation of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of
Christ, from which [the following] were torn off: firstly, the
innovated new calendarist church, through the introduction of the
condemned papist innovation [of the calendar], by which Ecumenism
entered in 1924; and secondly, the various old calendarist schisms,
which were created by their distortion of the Confession 
Ecclesiology of the uninnovated Holy Church of Christ.

3. This Orthodox Confession  Ecclesiology was printed and preached
since 1924, and was Synodically preached in the historic year of 1935.
We also keep it, preach it and confess it.

4. With one voice we disapprove and remove any expressions or
publications which, regardless of what context or by whom they were
written, are unacceptable from an Orthodox perspective and are foreign
to the Orthodox Confession and Ecclesiology, and we order that from
now on, anything contradictory, whether it be due to carelessness or
through human weakness, we regard it as having not been written.

In the year of salvation 1983, on July the 13th (old calendar).

The President:+ ANDREW of Athens and all Greece

The Members:+ GREGORY of Messenia+ MATTHEW of Megaris+ LAZARUS of Bresthena+ PACHOMIUS of Argolis+ THEODOSIUS of Phthiotis+ TITUS of Kozane

The Chief Secretary+ Hieromonk Kirykos (Kontogiannis)

[The above decision was not signed by Bishop Nicholas of Piraeus, as
he did not arrive at the council for "unknown reasons." It
may or may not be a coincidence that Bishop Nicholas of Piraeus later
became the leader of the cause of "Old Calendarist
Ecumenism" from within the Holy Synod, and created a schism.]